I don't want to conquer witches anymore.

This time is no exception.

After nodding in agreement, Zun immediately began its transformation. It quickly disassembled its massive dragon head and then reassembled it.

Clearly, its ferocious dragon head was designed to fit the massive dragon-like body of the previous creature. When it was still a "petite" half-dragon, it certainly didn't have this head.

The results of the restructuring quickly became apparent.

Although it was trained by the magic technicians of the ancient magic empire, Zun showed very strong design ability. In just five minutes, a mechanical little dragon appeared in front of them.

"Wow, so cute!" Cecil's eyes lit up as she looked at Taru. She pounced on him in one leap, completely forgetting how Taru had teased her before. She picked Taru up and rubbed him against her chest, hissing and groaning. "Hehehe... Isn't he just too cute?"

It's important to understand that although Zun had transformed herself into a tiny little dragon, she was still made of metal, and her weight was even greater than that of the two-meter-long greatsword, the Angel of Judgment. Yet, even so, Cecil held her tightly in his arms.

"Let me go, witch!" The colored light expressing its feelings was still mounted on the chest of the bottle, now flashing red, looking somewhat like Ultraman. At the same time, its mechanical synthesized voice seemed to carry a hint of annoyance, "Don't use your flat back to squeeze my body."

"What are you talking about? I didn't..." Cecil started to say, then suddenly realized what he meant, glared at it fiercely, and threw it to the ground. "Even if your appearance is super cute, you're not cute at all!"

“Perfect, I don’t want to be considered cute by witches either.” Zun swayed his body to check its mobility, and said irritably, “You witches are all the embodiment of evil.”

After being modified into this form, Zun sacrificed many combat-related functions but installed a lot of miscellaneous things, such as a voice system—it can finally produce voices with intonation and emotional fluctuations.

"Pah, I don't want to be called the 'incarnation of evil' by a monster like you."

Guangbao's eyes widened. She, who always prided herself on being a 'partner of justice,' had never suffered such an injustice. However, being bad at talking, she couldn't win the argument with Zun. Furious, she rolled up her sleeves and looked like she was about to take action.

"Alright, alright, stop arguing." Duke sighed, floating between Cecil and Zun, stopping their quarrel and preventing a potential fight. He also emphasized the need to show Cecil some respect; after all, she was far stronger than him. Furthermore, they would be working together for a while, and internal discord could lead to a team split. "Come on, apologize."

Faced with Duke's order, Zun nodded, then said with what seemed to be little sincerity, "I'm sorry, Miss Cecil."

Its voice lost its intonation once again. Duke felt its apology lacked sincerity, but Cecil, in his carefree opinion, it was a very good apology.

Adding to the mix, Duke pretended to be impartial and gave both sides equal blame: "Cecil, do you really want to beat up this cute creature?"

To be fair, if there were any irreconcilable conflicts between Cecil and Zun, Duke would naturally side with Guangbao. But the current situation is just ambiguous and is still acceptable.

In addition, Duke was genuinely curious about the secrets hidden on the bottle.

"Ah." Guangbao started to hesitate. She scratched her head and then said sincerely, "Okay, I forgive it."

They're so easy to fool.

Duke and Zun exchanged a glance, discerning each other's thoughts from their eyes (or the changing colors of the colored lights on their chests).

Of course, Duke could think that way, but he couldn't let others think that way too. So, he glared at Zun, making it lower its head guiltily.

As expected of an ancient magical empire, it took countless hardships and immense financial resources to pull this SSR from the gacha pool. Despite being a robot, it gives off the same feeling as a living being.

"In short, now that the true identity of the 'monster in the alley' has been identified, our mission for today is complete." Duke patted the smooth head of the mechanical dragon and said, "Later, let's go to the underground black market auction and broaden our horizons."

"Oh!"

……

Duke was in a spirit state at this time, and he had several pieces of equipment that he trusted very much, but he had lost them because he was using them at the time.

Neon lights, misaligned coordinates, deus ex machina.

The fact that these three extremely powerful items were not with him at the moment caused Duke's combat power to decline to an unprecedented level (mainly due to the lack of neon lights).

However, the Magic Eye Sulfur Fire and Nine Lives Cat that he obtained can make up for the lack of Neon and Misaligned Coordinates to some extent, but the absence of Deus Ex is a major obstacle, and it is difficult to find a replacement for the lack of trump cards.

As for the Soul Requiem that had once been taken by Talia, it has now returned to Duke's hands. Not only is it engraved on his heart, but the three lines of music are also engraved on Duke's soul core.

However, the power seeds stored inside are temporarily out of power reserves and will need time to recover.

Besides that, he had three more chances to draw prizes, each a reward for completing one of the three witch games: Clothing Kingdom, Truth or Dare, and Sleeping Beauty. He hadn't used them yet, wanting to wait until the power of Cinderella Seed within Soul Requiem recovered a bit before drawing prizes, to see if he could still draw a Deus Ex-God level path.

Thanks to the system, although Duke's level was not high and he had only been in this world for a few months, his knowledge was extremely extensive, especially regarding magical items.

Therefore, Duke felt that no matter how top-quality the magical item was, it wouldn't cause him much of a stir... until he followed Cecil into the black market auction and saw the first item they were auctioning.

"Ladies and gentlemen, as a warm-up, our first item for auction is this—a unique body created by an ancient magical empire using runic magic, a top-tier body that can be used by souls, ghosts, and even puppeteers!"

"Damn, Cecil, how much money did you bring? Let's go all in!"

Chapter 187 The Spendthrift Women

All in.

A wonderfully beautiful word, representing the boldness to spend lavishly, the prelude to a miraculous comeback, or the prelude to losing everything.

This huge disparity and uncertainty has made all-in poker a favorite among gamblers.

As the saying goes, if you win, you get young models at a club; if you lose, you have to work in the sex industry.

At the gambling table, for those truly bloodthirsty gamblers, leaving the table before running out of chips is absolutely out of the question. Rather than leaving with huge losses, they'd rather go all in and lose everything.

Although Duke wasn't a gambling addict, he was a complete gambler outside of the gambling table.

Actions always tend towards high-risk, high-reward strategies; they're willing to gamble as long as the success rate of the plan is greater than 50%. They're addicted to gacha games but incredibly unlucky... cough, let's leave the last one aside for now.

At this moment, when faced with the possibility of regaining his body through a prosthetic body, Duke's first reaction was to go all in and use every means to obtain this item.

Then he realized a truth.

While it's true that gamblers eventually lose everything, the premise of this statement is that they had something in the first place. How can you talk about losing something if you never had it?

Getting on the gambling table requires capital!

Duke's funds ran out as the auction neared its end, and even with the money Cecil had on him, he couldn't make it into the final round of the artificial body contest.

Cecil was considered a wealthy woman, but of course she couldn't possibly take all her wealth with her when she went out. Duke, on the other hand, looked at the inventory provided by the system and carried all his wealth with him... but even his entire fortune wasn't enough.

After several witch games, Duke's assets would have made him a wealthy man in other places, but in this floating city where spellcasters were everywhere and the rich were treated like dogs, his assets were nothing.

"What should I do?" Duke withdrew from the bidding war, looking at the few remaining buyers bidding one after another, and muttered to himself with a frown, "How can I get this artificial body?"

Although souls with clear will are rare, among those who have appeared so far, besides Duke, only the legendary souls Talia and Megan possess this level of ability.

However, the prosthetics that seemed designed for conscious souls were much more sought after than expected, which surprised Duke.

In reality, this is quite normal. As a time traveler, Duke lacks many crucial common sense facts, which is why he has this misconception.

Naturally formed conscious souls are extremely rare. Apart from the high probability of forming one after the fall of a near-legendary or legendary level powerhouse, only a very few chosen ones can achieve this. However, there are always many ghost-type creatures among the undead race. These undead creatures generally have no memories of their previous lives; they are completely different people before and after their deaths... but their needs for a body are the same as those for a conscious soul.

Meanwhile, various countries and organizations also have secret formulas for artificially catalyzing the awakening of the soul, combined with high-quality artificial remains (artificial remains are also subject to wear and tear). While it may not grant immortality, it can at least extend lifespan by several decades.

Anything associated with "living longer" becomes exorbitantly expensive! This applies to obviously trendy medicinal herbs, let alone a reliable solution with substantial benefits.

Humans are always driven mad by what they lack, and lifespan is a precious commodity that most humans lack.

Of course, besides its practical use, this artificial body from the ancient magical empire also has collectible value, but compared to "extending lifespan," keeping it would be a waste.

"Should I go back and raise the money?"

Cecilmore, standing to the side, was rubbing her hands together. She looked back and forth at the buyers who were bidding against each other, seemingly eager to try her hand at it. At such a young age, she had already stepped one foot into the legendary realm, and she was not short of lifespan (most long-lived creatures probably couldn't outlive her). On the contrary, she seemed to just want to join in this public display of power and have some fun throwing money around.

Seeing the eagerness on her face, Duke finally understood just how rich this woman was...

No wonder you've been scammed so many times but haven't gone bankrupt yet. I never imagined that you, with your thick eyebrows and big eyes, were actually a money-grubber!

"Come on, it's too late to raise money now. And at the current rate, who knows when they'll stop."

Duke stopped Guangbao, then narrowed his eyes and muttered to himself, "It's more realistic to think about how to kill and steal the treasure."

Cecil: "?"

"Why don't we just sell this precious magical mechanical creature? We're sure we can get a good bid, right?"

bottle:"?"

Duke, whose villainous nature was fully revealed as his female companion and pet cast strange glances at him, wiped his mouth and became slightly more restrained.

But at that moment, he suddenly heard a very familiar voice among the bidders, and Duke quickly turned his head to look at the private room.

This black market auction was very professional. All the private rooms were one-way transparent, and buyers did not need to raise their paddles to bid. There were dedicated waiters to act as paddle raisers, so it can be said that the buyers' identities were protected very well.

In Duke and Cecil's box, there was a beautiful waitress dressed in a provocative bunny girl outfit who helped them hold up their placards.

However, Duke was certain that this did not mean that one of his acquaintances had become a Playboy Bunny, because the person who spoke not only had a strong and powerful voice, but also an irresistible aura and a chilling presence... and made no attempt to conceal their identity, leaning half their body out of the private room.

That was Anne, with a blank expression.

Moreover, the number she announced caused a brief silence to fall over the originally lively auction, and for a moment the entire venue was completely quiet.

"5 gold coins".

The expressionless necromancer was squandering money like water.

Such a generous gesture left Cecil, who was standing next to Duke, speechless, her mouth agape as if she could fit an egg inside. The slightly smug rich girl was now speechless. The price of the artificial body had been slowly rising from around 2, but no one expected that Annie would raise the price by more than double.

One buyer gritted her teeth and had the person in the VIP box, dressed in a sharp butler's uniform, hold up a sign: "50,000..."

Before he could finish speaking, Annie, expressionless, interrupted, "10!"

Everyone in the room: "???"

Duke: "???"

What is this spendthrift woman doing?!

At that moment, almost everyone present thought the same thing, because that was 10 gold coins! It wasn't worth it at all to buy a prosthetic body! It wasn't even a matter of cost-effectiveness; it was throwing money down the drain!

Duke knew that Annie had just swindled 10 yuan in research funding during the Truth or Dare game, but... money shouldn't be spent like this, you spendthrift woman!

Duke cried.

To be honest, he and Annie were already even, and he didn't care what happened to Annie anymore... but he really felt bad about spending all that money!

That's 10!

Chapter 188 The Yandere's Actions

"10 gold coins once, 10 gold coins twice, 10 gold coins three times... Sold! Congratulations to this beautiful and generous witch!"

The host's voice was almost hoarse with excitement. He knew very well that among the remaining items in the auction today, it was unlikely that anything would exceed this price. This artificial body worth 10 gold coins was also the most expensive thing he had ever sold in his career.

Even if it was because the buyer was a fool... so what? It's sold, and that's that.

The excited host thought his boss would be very happy to hear the news, but in fact, while his boss was indeed happy, he was not surprised at all.

After all, she was currently in Annie's private room.

"My dear Miss Anne, are you happy now?"